Dear Mark Tooley,
I have a bone to pick with you. We disagree on
Obama’s recent decision to not deport dreamers, those undocumented citizens who
have grown up in the United States. You don’t like it because he has directed
an agency to prioritize deportation on those who are a risk to national
security or have been convicted of crimes, or as you call it, he is arbitrarily
refusing to enforce a law. (Just like Clinton, both Bushes and Reagan did, by the way, concerning other groups of immigrants).
But that’s not my problem… My problem with your recent article is where you say, “The Scriptures and church tradition offer no detailed
guidance for modern civil states and immigration law.”
You’re right. Jesus never specifically spoke to modern civil
states, but he was an “anchor baby” and also an "illegal" immigrant, sneaking
across the border into Egypt. Jesus didn’t directly speak to immigration law in
his sermon on the mount, but he always seemed to use the outsider and foreigner
to teach about love and who God is.
Here’s my problem… It bewilders me that you can be so clear
on what you think the Bible says about homosexuality, and not see that the story of
God’s people is a story about immigrants. When it comes to oppressing the LGBTQ
community with Scripture, you can site chapter and verse, but when it comes to the oppression
of those here without papers, you claim ignorance. Shame on you! Here is a
chapter and verse for starters: “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him,
for you were aliens in Egypt.” Exodus 22:21
The story of God’s people is a story about immigrants. Abram
and Sarai were called to leave their homeland—to go to a strange place. Their
story is the story of today’s immigrant… unsure of their new surroundings; not
completely sure who they can trust; lying about their marriage status. Again and again, the Jewish people have been
aliens in foreign places, fighting for their survival, asking themselves how
they can worship God in this strange land. Being aliens seems to be what it
means to be God’s. The Jews celebrate a holy meal, remembering a time when they
were immigrant slaves in Egypt. Christians celebrate this same meal,
reinterpreted by Christ at the Last Supper, remembering that we are not from
this world, but are aliens eating the body and blood of a God who transcends
all borders, nations, and nationalities.
This all seems pretty black and white to me—our call as
followers of Christ to remember our real home and at the same time, extend the
hospitality Christ offers at the table to all our brothers and sisters, no
matter their temporary homeland. This is a calling that supersedes the laws of King Herod, Caesar or
Governor Rick Scott. We read in the law that it is illegal to run across the border to escape the law,
but we read in the Bible about two scared teenagers fleeing into another
country to protect their baby named Jesus. In Sodom and Gomorrah, God got
pretty angry with people that didn’t offer hospitality to foreigners in their
midst. And as Paul traveled the world, it seemed he was constantly trying to
persuade the Christ followers back home to accept the new, albeit foreign
people, who had heard God’s love in their language as well. In Acts we read
about a strange dream where God tells Peter that food laws aren’t more
important than love, helping him understand that God’s love expressed in Jesus
Christ could no longer be for a specific people, but was available to all… even
Ethiopian Eunuchs as Stephen would learn. Laws of the land are important, but
when they interfere with God’s all inclusive love, they have to be broken through nonviolent suffering, as we witnessed in the life of Christ.
The truth is, God hates oppression of the foreigner, not the
foreigner. Or, said another way, love the foreigner, hate the bigotry.
Jesus tells us a story about God being more concerned about sorting out the
goats and holding them accountable than deporting the strangers. For he was a
stranger, and did we welcome him? Or another story that reminds us that God is
like a shepherd that goes out of her way to search for that one, lost, scared
sheep. God again and again locates God’s self with the oppressed, poor, lonely,
rejected… and the alien.
It is about having a consistency of ethic. How is it that
someone who cares so deeply about saving the lives of those that the law
doesn’t deem persons (the unborn), can take such an ambivalent stance on the
lives of those who are robbed of their personhood because they lack the right
papers? It blows my mind.
If you look at the numbers, immigration concerns always rear
their head when the economy is bad. When resources are scarce, Americans start
yelling for the people here last and illegally, to go home or they lock them up in detention centers. In reality, there are less illegal
immigrants crossing our borders now than in the last 50 years… you wouldn’t
know that from the cries of Republicans and Boss Hog style, wild west sheriffs
who care more about making money through private prisons and their public image
than about relieving suffering.
Mark, this is what I wish you were writing to your
followers… remind them to remember a time when because of famine they left
their homeland and headed to Egypt to look for food. Remember a time when you
were slaves in Egypt and God saved you. Remember a time when you were a sinner and you received God's gift of grace.
We celebrate a meal of remembrance together—those rich and
poor, those with papers and those without… all at the same table. We all eat,
remember and participate in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. This is
the new covenant, a new way of living—a new way of relating to God and
neighbor. And because of this new order, those who follow Christ remember that
hospitality for all to come to the table does not involve asking for their
papers first. We are all aliens in a strange land, communing at Christ’s table.
Caste systems are idolatrous. Whether the castes are based
on economic status, race, sexuality, gender, lineage or nationality… they are
idolatrous. God created us in God’s image, so when we assign an arbitrary
hierarchy, placing those we deem “legal” over those we deem “illegal”, we are creating
gods to worship. It’s what we as immigrants do when we forget about the God who
brought us out of Egypt… we melt our gold and we turn to idolatry. Paul said it this way in his
letter to the Corinthian church:
1 Corinthians 10:14, 16-17 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. The cup of
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we,
though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
1 Corinthians 11:17-22, 33
Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together
not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together
as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe
it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may
be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not
to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of
others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to
eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have
nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise
you.
Therefore, when you come together
to eat, wait for one another.
We are called to wait for one another at the table…
Waiting for one another means making more room.
Waiting for one another means open seating.
Waiting for one another means sitting next to strangers.
Waiting for one another means calling out those blocking
doors.
Waiting for one another means redistributing resources.
Waiting for one another means when one hurts, we all hurt.
Waiting for one another means setting aside privilege.
Waiting for one another means taking the table to bars and
prisons.
Waiting for one another means taking the table to those not
present.
Waiting for one another means welcoming the stranger.
Waiting for one another means to risk being stranger.
Sincerely,
Rev. Andy Oliver
Solid.
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